CLEVELAND, Ohio – An idyllic interlude on the Cuyahoga River today is a harbinger of what millions can expect when the Lake Link Trail is completed.

Hundreds got a foretaste as the Cleveland Foundation announced a gift of $5 million towards completion of the trail.

Ronn Richard, the foundation's CEO, said today's gift means the foundation has given $13 million this summer toward the revitalization of Cleveland. It pledged $8 million last month to revamp Public Square.

The money for the trail actually goes to the private non-profit Trust for Public Land, which Metroparks CEO Brian Zimmerman described as the clearinghouse for funds to underwrite the $15-million Lake Link Trail.

Zimmerman said the trail, which will join the river and lake, will be renamed Cleveland Foundation Centennial Trail in recognition of the foundation's commitment to the project.

Richard said that in 1919, the organization "produced a recreation survey that jump-started publicly funded purchase and assembly of parkland to form our Cleveland Metroparks." He added that the foundation's generosity played a major role in the establishment of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Zimmerman said the Lake Link Trail will intersect the Towpath Trail. He said the effort to make lake and river more accessible is the work of a partnership that includes the county, the Port Authority, LandStudio, the West Creek Conservancy, Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority, the Cleveland Foundation, the Trust for Public land and the city of Cleveland.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson said the trail project is just one example of how "Cleveland is inventing itself in many different ways."

The most eloquent statements, however, were made by the joyful interactions of the public with the river and Metroparks' Rivergate complex in the Flats – the site of today's press conference.

Children reached for river flotsam as people lined up for pontoon-boat rides down the river toward Wendy Park.

Several hundred attended, many of them members of the public summoned by the foundation, the Metroparks and Trust for Public Land through invitations, email and social media.

Zimmerman said completion of the Lake Link Trail is expected by 2017 – the Cleveland Metroparks' centennial.

"Phase I is out to bid, and in design development right now," Zimmerman said. "Land clearing has already started. We'd like to open the first phase of the construction by the second or third quarter of 2015."

When complete, the trail will run for about a mile and a half, terminating at Wendy Park on Whiskey Island.

Zimmerman said it will be built in as many as four phases. The first phase from Scranton to Columbia roads is underway. Later phases will include a bike and pedestrian bridge that will join the flats to Wendy Park.

Some of the land for the trail system is owned by various parties including LandStudio, West Creek Conservancy, and the city of Cleveland.

Whiskey Island currently is owned by Cuyahoga County and is scheduled to pass to the Metroparks on Dec. 17.

Pam Carson, director of the Trust for Public Land's Ohio component, said total cost for the project is estimated to be around $15 million. The Cleveland Foundation gift will mean that around $8 million already has been raised, with $2 million from the Gund Foundation and the rest from private donors and smaller foundations.

"Think about all the residents and visitors who will be able to get to our under-new-management lakefront parks," Carson said. "What is amazing when people come together is what gets done."

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